STANDING IN GRACE

“…we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand” (Romans 5:2).

When I was growing up, our family attended a large church in western Canada that had a strong emphasis on the grace message. As a child, the part of that “message” that I understood best was the connection between salvation and grace. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). This is really only the beginning of the story of grace in the life of every follower of Jesus. Our whole journey is to be one of learning to live and grow in grace. Listed below are examples of our grace journey—by no means a complete list:

• The infilling of the Holy Spirit is a gift that is given freely to those who hunger.
• Healing is a gift that Christ paid for on the cross.
• The wisdom of heaven is ours for the asking. We can’t work our way up to it, we are simply told to ask.
• The fruits of the Spirit manifest themselves in our life not because we achieve a certain status as a believer but because He gives them freely.
• Forgiveness for sin is ours if we just confess and repent.
• Access to the presence of God is freely given to all who believe.
• The daily blessings of God on our life are too numerous to count and they are “grace gifts.”

We don’t deserve any of these but God, in love, extends His favor to us. Are you praising Him yet?

While it is by faith that we gain entrance to the life of grace, we are required to lay hold of the benefits of grace and not let go. Romans 5:2 uses the phrase, “this grace in which we stand.”To stand means to make firm or be established. The word stand is the same word that Paul uses in Ephesians 6:11 and 13 when describing the armor of God, putting it on, and taking a “stand.” Paul is describing the armor of a Roman soldier and using the picture of the Roman warrior to illustrate how we are to fight in our spiritual warfare.

The hand-to-hand combat of armies in the first century was gruesome, and very often the battlefields were so drenched in blood that the soldiers had a difficult time maintaining their footing without help. Roman soldiers would fasten cleats or spikes to their boots before going into battle and thereby lessen the chance of slipping when the fighting became intense and blood was being shed all around them. As the soldiers moved forward across the bloody ground, they planted their spiked boots firmly so as to be able to maintain their footing.

This is exactly the message that Paul is sending to us. Plant your feet firmly so you don’t slip and lose some of the benefits of grace in your life. Sometimes we have to plant our feet and contend for the grace of God that our enemy tries to wrestle away from us in the heat of combat.

I learned this lesson in the middle 1990’s. I had been invited to speak at a conference in Portland, Oregon. I really was excited about the opportunity but a problem developed that made it seem impossible for me to actually go. I developed a migraine headache that just refused to go away—or if it did subside, another came within a day or two. I consulted a physician and found that I had a condition known as cluster migraines.

As the time for the conference neared, I just happened to be reading in Romans 5 and read the second verse: “…we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand.” The Holy Spirit ignited the last part of the verse “in which we stand” and I knew that I had to take a stand for grace—against the encroachment of the enemy.

A few days later I flew to Portland and spoke at the conference, also ministering in a local church before returning home. It was not a pain-free trip and I wish I could tell you that I was miraculously healed, but the healing did not come that way. However, I got through the trip just fine and by the time I was back home, the cluster migraine had begun to recede and within a short time it left and has never returned. I took a stand and said, “The grace of God’s healing for this migraine is mine and I’m going to contend for it.”

Grace is a gift that reaches into every area of your life. But like every gift, if you don’t reach for it, unwrap it, and begin to wear it or use it, it remains an unopened gift on the table. It’s one thing to sing, “Amazing Grace” with other believers and worship and praise God through song. It is something else entirely to take a stand for grace to be flowing in every part of your life. So take a stand!